is online shopping killing the high street? Far from it. It might just save our high street – but only if it moves with the times says retail expert Clare Rayner

It is exactly 20 years since someone first tapped their credit card details into a website and clicked “Buy”.

Since that very first purchase – of a Sting CD from US site NetMarket – online shopping has transformed the way we spend.

Now, 75% of us shop online and more than a quarter do so at least once a week, with Britons spending £91billion a year on the internet.

But the online shopping revolution has had a huge impact on our high streets. While internet giants like Amazon and Asos have become household names, 12% of our shops lie empty and a series of famous stores, like Woolworths and Comet, have gone.

This year, around 12,000 shops will close across the UK and even stalwarts like Marks & Spencer and Tesco have seen a drop in sales.

So is online shopping killing the high street? Far from it. It might just save our high street – but only if it moves with the times.

Companies like Blockbuster faltered because they failed to adapt to changes in technology and the way we want to purchase certain things – like movies and music.

In contrast the biggest online retailer , Amazon, now sells 120 million products and has annual UK sales of £4.3billion.

How do traditional businesses compete with that? They should follow the lead of the likes of John Lewis, who have boomed by keeping up with the shift towards online shopping. Around one in three purchases from the company are online – that is a rise of 7% in the last two years.

Like John Lewis, more traditional retailers have both an online offering and shops which act like showrooms where people can see, touch and feel the goods.

John Lewis and Waitrose (Photo: Reuters)

That is also one reason why click and collect services have been such a hit, because it combines the real life and online offerings – and retailers also know that shoppers make incidental purchases when they collecting an online order.

The change over the last 20 years has been huge but relatively slow, certainly in the beginning.

Very few people had the internet in 1994, now 84% of households have internet access – that was a huge increase of 57% from just two years ago.

The smartphone has also been a big factor in the online shopping boom, with access to the internet using a mobile phone doubling between 2010 and 2014, from 24% to 58%. Now three-quarters of all adults have made an online purchase, compared to just over half in 2008.

And you will see as much change in the retail world over the next five years as you have seen in the past two decades.

The businesses which suffer will be those that do not adapt quickly enough. While other supermarkets have been relatively quick to catch on to online shopping, Morrisons has been incredibly slow.

In May, Morrisons saw like-for-like sales fall by 7.1% partly due to its lack of convenience stores but also as it has been slow to form an online offering.

From Waitrose to Asda, online supermarket shopping is now big business – we Brits buy more of our groceries online than any other country.

Online purchases account for 5% of all supermarket sales. In the US that figure is just 1%.

Businesses cannot afford to ignore online anymore. Any high street business not joining the revolution will not stand a chance.

Statistics show most online sales are made around 9pm, while people watch TV browsing on a laptop. But if your business closes at 5pm and you do not have an online alternative then you will lag behind.

Online shopping need not be the death of the high street, what we are seeing is an evolution. Yet, certain things cannot be done online. People will always need nail bars or coffee shops, for example.

Part of the solution is to be more niche, which is why we have seen businesses like butchers and bakers enjoy a resurgence.

Why? Because they offer something special which you cannot get online. That is the way forward for the high street.

Within five years I think you will see 50% of all purchases online, as opposed to the 10% currently. That figure does not reflect how many in-store purchases have been influenced by online browsing either.

Over the next five years online shopping is going to develop with technology which will know what your size is, for example.

And you are likely to see more online purchases made within stores as staff with hand-held tablets take orders.

We will make transactions at in-store tills less and the line between a purchase made online and in a store will start to blur.

Which retailers survive and die will depend on who can embrace this online retail revolution.

Clare Rayner has worked in some of Britain’s biggest high street retailers, before becoming a consultant and author.